in Kūfah, ʿAlī sent a message to the rest of them and said:

“What has taken place between us and the people is as you have seen. Stay wherever you wish until the ummah of Muhammad ﷺ gathers concerning us and you, on the understanding that you neither shed any forbidden blood, nor block a road, nor wrong a person under covenant (1). If you do, then we declare war upon you on equal terms. ‘Indeed, Allah does not love the treacherous’ [al-Anfal 8:58].”

ʿĀʾishah then said to him, “O Ibn Shaddād—so he fought them?”

He replied, “They themselves said, ‘By Allah, he did not move against us until we had cut off the roads, spilt blood, and violated the rights of the people under covenant.’ ”

She asked, “By Allah?”
He said, “By Allah, the One besides whom there is no deity, that is exactly what happened.”

She said, “And what is it I hear from the people of Iraq about Dhu’l-Thadī and Dhu’l-Thudayyah (2)?”

He answered, “I saw him myself; I was with ʿAlī among the slain (3). He called out to the people, ‘Do you recognise this man?’ Many came forward saying, ‘I saw him in the mosque of such-and-such clan [praying and reciting], and I saw him in the mosque of such-and-such clan praying,’ yet they produced no proof about him other than that.”

She asked, “And what, as the Iraqis claim, did ʿAlī say when he stood over him?”

He said, “I heard him say, ‘Allah and His Messenger have spoken the truth.’ ”

She said, “Did you hear him say anything else?”

He replied, “By Allah, no!”

She said, “Indeed! ‘Allah and His Messenger have spoken the truth.’ May Allah have mercy on ʿAlī; whenever he saw something that pleased him he would say, ‘Allah and His Messenger have spoken the truth,’ yet the people of Iraq fabricate about him and add to the report.”

This narration is unique to Aḥmad; its chain is sound, and it was preferred by al-Ḍiyāʾ. From this account it appears that their number was (4) eight thousand, but that refers to the Qur’an-reciters. Others who shared their doctrine, though not among the reciters, may have joined them until they numbered twelve thousand—or even sixteen thousand. When Ibn ʿAbbās debated them, four thousand returned, while the remainder persisted in what they were upon.

The story is also transmitted by Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān, from Mūsā ibn Masʿūd, from ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār, from Samāk Abū (5) Zumayl, from Ibn ʿAbbās. In that version they reproached ʿAlī for three things: that he had allowed men to arbitrate, that he had erased his title of “Commander of the Believers,” and that on the Day of the Camel he had fought and killed the innocent yet made no distribution of wealth or captives. He answered the first two objections as mentioned above; regarding the third he said, “Among the captives was the Mother of the Believers [ʿĀʾishah]. If you say she is not your mother you have disbelieved, and if you deem it lawful to take your mother captive (6) you have disbelieved.”

He said: two thousand of them repented, while the rest went out and fought. Others report that when Ibn ʿAbbās entered upon them he was wearing a fine cloak (7); they objected to his wearing it, so he argued with them using Allah’s words: “Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has produced for His servants, and the wholesome things of provision?” [al-Aʿrāf 7:32].